Your answers indicate that you have made a good beginning in becoming an evangelizing community. That’s wonderful!
There are various steps you may wish to consider in order to move ahead in this exciting ministry:
- Strangely enough, growth as an evangelizing community does not only happen through thinking about evangelism, but more importantly, thinking about the church-what it is and what it is for, what its mission is and what its message is. One way to raise this issue is through preaching and teaching over a period of time. The Wycliffe Booklet, Preaching the Church’s Mission, suggests a sermon series on this topic, but the material can also be used for a Lenten series or for a Bible study group.
- The leadership (clergy and lay) might read and discuss a book such as the Church of England’s report, Mission-Shaped Church (available as a free PDF), Harold Percy’s Good News People or John Bowen’s Evangelism for ‘Normal’ People. All of these put the work of evangelism in the broader context of God’s mission in the world and the nature of the church.
- There are some popular video introductions to evangelism suitable for congregations, including the DVDs Paying it Forward (from the Primate’s Evangelism Commission): http://institute.wycliffecollege.ca/?p=8 and John Bowen’s Evangelism for ‘Normal’ People: http://institute.wycliffecollege.ca/?p=49 . These can be a good springboard for discussion about what evangelism is and how it can be appropriately practised.
- The program Natural Church Development helps a church identify its strengths and weaknesses in eight areas, including evangelism. Institute Speaker Connie denBok has written an article for good idea! introducing this program which you can read here: http://institute.wycliffecollege.ca/?p=153 . Or you can learn about it directly on the NCD website: http://www.ncdcanada.com/. Since evangelism is not just an extra program to add on to the life of a busy parish, but a whole community mindset, this is a good place to begin.
- Depending on where you are located, you might wish to consult with one of the Institute Speakers with expertise in congregational health and welcoming newcomers. Click here to see the list. (Please note: It is usually more economical for them to speak to a gathering of a group of churches, rather than just one.)
Church - General,
Evangelism - General
Author Info:
John Bowen has been associated with the Institute of Evangelism since 1997, and has been the Director since 1999. For twenty-five years he worked for Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship, from 1989 till 1997 as National Evangelism Consultant and a campus evangelist. He has a Doctor of Ministry degree from McMaster University. For more information on John's ministry, click the Director link in the sidebar at left. Click here to read all articles by John Bowen
Good resource and great ideas. We do all the above and still find not very many coming forward for adult baptism and confirmation. We are pressing on to like at a highly adapted form of Mike Breen’s LifeShapes materials. The key concept – which seems to be universally accepted in the UK – is the UP IN OUT Triangle. It is a simple idea but it will take us all fall to unpack it. and probably another season to begin to see fruit from it.
Everywhere I went in the UK all the people, lay and ordained, understand that extending the good news out into the world was the responsibility of each Christian – and that most every church group shoul dbe thinking in the same way.